Report from Reuters
In Brief – The Australian Government has reversed course and announced that the country’s strict social-media age limit of 16 years old, set to come online in December, will apply to YouTube despite the initial plan to exempt the massive and massively popular video platform. Last month, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner recommended ditching the exemption, citing online user research that pointed to YouTube as the platform cited by the largest number of young users in Australia as the place they encountered harmful content. YouTube, which is one of the digital platforms most widely used by teens around the world, including in Australia, was to be exempted based on the government’s determination that the primary purpose for younger users was addressing health and education needs, uses that qualify for an exemption under the law. However, that decision was harshly criticized by other digital platforms with large numbers of teen users including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snap. In response to the government’s change of course, a YouTube spokesperson said that the platform should be exempt because, “YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It’s not social media.”
Context – Like his predecessor, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been willing to talk tough to big US tech. So, it was a surprise when YouTube got a carve out from the government’s high-profile social media age limit. But we noted at the time the possible impact of how Google and Meta have taken different paths on the equally high-profile and contentious Australian policy of forcing the digital giants to pay millions of dollars to Australian media companies. Before the government pushed through its social media age limit, Meta said that it planned to stop paying Australian media companies and was willing to block media posts instead. Google was willing to keep paying the Australian companies. Meta’s platforms then faced the new age limit while Google’s YouTube got the nod from the government. But apparently not anymore.